Brenden Fruauff, took home the gold in the 2025 Microsoft Office Specialist U.S. National Championship in Grapevine, Texas, earning him a spot at the Microsoft Office World Champions later this month in Orlando. PROVIDED

A Lee County student recently took home the gold in the 2025 Microsoft Office Specialist U.S. National Championship in Grapevine, Texas, earning him a spot at the Microsoft Office World Champions later this month in Orlando.

Brenden Fruauff, a Lehigh Acres resident who attended Dunbar High School, found about the competition from his school and, after learning that he could earn money, a scholarship, and other things by competing in a PowerPoint competition he decided to start practicing.

“I took my certification for PowerPoint and pretty much aced it. Since then, I did practice for it and got fairly decent at it,” the recent high school graduate said.

He made use of many resources before the competition, which was held last month, June 15-18.

“We were put in front of laptops and tested on knowledge through multiple choice questions,” Fruauff said, adding that they also had to write an essay at the end of how the program affected the world at the time. “It wasn’t as interactive as I thought it would be. It was straight forward.”

Brenden Fruauff, took home the gold in the 2025 Microsoft Office Specialist U.S. National Championship in Grapevine, Texas, earning him a spot at the Microsoft Office World Champions later this month in Orlando. PROVIDED

There were 190 finalists at the event in Texas.

There were thousands of students across the United States aged 13 to 22 who entered one of six competition tracks by submitting a qualified passing score on one of the certification exams – Microsoft Office Specialist Word, Microsoft Office Specialist Excel, and Microsoft Office Specialist PowerPoint.

They were given an hour and a half to complete 40 questions and an essay.

“My prompt was about how PowerPoint has helped with digital literacy and technological competency in the real world,” Fruauff said. “I claimed it has helped our digital literacy and competency by so much. It makes it easy by learning Word, PowerPoint and Excel – you are familiar with the programs already even if they are not the same. By working with these programs, you’ve learned a lot.”

He earned $3,000 by winning first place to go towards college, a laptop, a trophy and medal.

Brenden Fruauff, took home the gold in the 2025 Microsoft Office Specialist U.S. National Championship in Grapevine, Texas, earning him a spot at the Microsoft Office World Champions later this month in Orlando. PROVIDED

“The students have shown a remarkably high standard in their understanding and use of the Microsoft programs, and the top performers will join us at the Microsoft Office Specialist World Championship later this year,” Dr. Gary Gates, Managing Director, Pearson VUE, said in a prepared statement. “These students have not only proven that they are the best in the U.S, at using Microsoft Office products effectively, but they have also earned an important distinction to include on their resumes: a desire to learn and validate in-demand skills. The certification that they have earned as well as the title of “Microsoft Office Specialist” will serve them well in their future academic and career pursuits.”Fruauff will travel to Orlando for the World Champions, which will be held July 27, through July 30. Of course he wants to do well in the competition, but he is also looking forward to meeting and networking with people from all over the world.“At the end of the day connections are so important and worth so much. I want to expand as much as I can while I am there. The connections will help me more in the long run,” Fruauff said.

He will spend time doing a practice test, going over information and making a few custom presentations using as many features as possible before traveling to Orlando.

Technology became more of an interest of his when he entered Dunbar High, especially since the school is known for its tech academy and certifications one can earn. He said he knew he wanted to go there and take classes – cyber security, hardware, software – all to hone his skills.

Fruauff said he earned 33 technology certifications before graduating from high school.

He plans on attending Florida SouthWestern State College to earn his AA degree before transferring somewhere else to earn his bachelor’s degree.